Preview of the Kilnaboy 10 mile Road Race - Sun 13th April (2pm)

At last, we have reached the end and it's time for the 4th and final race in the John Buckley Sports / Munster 10 mile Classic series. Kilnaboy is in the heart of County Clare and word has it that this will be the hardest of the 4 races.

Directions...

About a month ago, I put up a special webpage for this race seeing as how Kilnaboy AC do not have their own website.

The link is http://homepage.eircom.net/~corkrunning/Kilnaboy_10mile_Road_Race.html

On that page, you will find maps and directions.

By the way, why not consider car pooling and split the costs??? It's a long enough journey without having to travel on your own. I'd estimate that the travel time from Cork City will be in the region of 2.5 hours.

Entries...

Note that you enter on the day, there is no need to pre-register. The cost is only €10 and that includes a T-shirt for all finishers.

Series...

If you have completed the first 3 races in the series, I have put the current standings up on a seperate webpage. The link is...

http://homepage.eircom.net/~corkrunning/2008_Classic_Series_after_3_races.htm

Course...

I have never ran this race before so like many of you, this will be my first time. I hear that that while there are no reals hills as such, there are plenty of small drags which make things a little tricky.

Weather... (Updated Sat 12 noon)

With 24 hours to go, the forecast looks pretty reasonable. It should be a bright way with some clouds and the possibility of an odd shower. The wind will be from the North which will be against us for the start of the race. That should keep temperatures down a bit but it may feel very warm in sheltered spots especially in the April sunshine. It looks like a day for singlets only.

Jack & Jill Charity 10 km walk / run - Sat 12th Apr (3pm)

The Jack and Jill Childrens charity are holding a charity walk / run next Saturday in Kenmare, Co. Kerry. Note that this is a charity event, not a race. You basically start in Kenmare and run North along the old Killarney/Kenmare road up to a high point and back again. Here is the official blurb off their website...

The run is on Saturday afternoon and will be started by Eddie Hobbs at 3pm, in the Square, Kenmare, it follows The Kerry Way and Old Killarney Road out of the town, rises to over 600ft in the first 2k and then it's all downhill back to town!!! Refreshments will be provided at the Top of the Hill!

That's the way to do it....refreshments in the middle of the run instead of the end!! Note that the entry fee is a minimum of €30 which is how they raise the funds instead of sponsorship cards. This entry fee includes a T-Shirt.

If you want more info, have a look at their website...

http://www.jackandjill.ie/Events-Run-up-the-Hill.htm

and http://jackandjillrunupthehill.blogspot.com/

Long training runs for the Cork City Marathon...14.2 to 21.2 miles...
With roughly 8 weeks to go to the Cork City Marathon, some of you will now be thinking about getting in some long runs. I'm sure most of you have your own routes sorted out already but just in case you are looking for idea's, I have put a route up on the MapMyRun website.
First of all, you park and start at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, the GAA stadium on the Marina. You run down the Marina, past Blackrock Castle, down along the walkway next to the river, accross the old railway bridge to Rochestown, down to Passage and then on to Monkstown. All said and done, about 9 miles along the waterfront, most of it scenic and safe.
Around the 9.5 mile mark, things get a bit tricky as you run out of footpath and you need to run on a narrow section of a busy road for about 600 metres. Then take the right for the recycling centre. Now the hard part, a 2 mile climb. Nothing steep but it's a long drag.
After that, a steep decent, left at the college crossroads and back into Rochestown. Back along the walkway and take the direct route along the old railway line all the way back to Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Total milage = 15.7 miles.

Options...
You have 2 options, you can return by the waterfront route after Rochestown. That will add 1.5 miles on to your run giving a total of 17.2 miles. Or, you can go out and return by the more direct old railway track route, that will take 1.5 miles off your run giving a total of 14.2 miles.
So, with some simple route choices, you have the option of doing 14.2, 15.7 or 17.2 miles.
You can see the route in more detail by clicking on the link below...



Adding 4 miles to your run...
To get in a really long run, you can do an extra 4 miles BEFORE you start the long run. Basically, the route is based on the Cork BHAA John Buckley Sports 4 mile course. Click below to see it in detail...



By doing this beforehand, you now have the option of doing 18.2, 19.7 or 21.2 miles.

Some extra notes...
1) Before you try these kind of distances, you should have done some 10 and 12 mile runs beforehand.
2) When you are going up into these kind of distances, dehydration becomes an issue. A good idea is to leave a bottle of water for yourself somewhere in a hedge around the halfway point.

Champion Sports Cork City Marathon and Marathon Relay 2008....Part 1 of 12 by Mick Dooley, Cork BHAA

(Mick Dooley of the Cork Business Houses Athletic Association is writing a 12 part series of articles for the Evening Echo. He has very kindly sent them on to me so that I can put them up here on this blog. They are written with the beginner in mind. Part 1 is based on 12 weeks to go, about the 10th of March)

As you know the marathon and marathon relay was official launched during the week with Champion Sports named as the title sponsors. This is a very exciting prospect for the event and should bring plenty of countrywide interest in the event this year. 2007 saw over 5000 entries in both events and it is expected to add at least another 3000 to that this year. Once again with the success of last years relay event it is expected to have a further increase here with relay legs from 4 to 7 miles.

The Course
This year the Marathon route will remain very similar to last year with the spectacular Start and finish areas in Patrick Street remaining the same. Some small adjustments may be needed at certain parts throughout the course with safety of runners and disruption to the public in mind. This year it is expected to have a relay change over at the half marathon point giving individual relay runners an opportunity to run a half marathon leg.

Entries
Entry list to date there is almost 500 marathon entries with 20% of these entries from outside of Ireland and now with entry forms freely available in sports stores and leisure clubs it would be hoped that entries would pick up before the increase of entry fee on March 31st . Full details of entry fees and closing dates are on the website at www.corkcitymarathon.ie or for entry forms contact the marathon office at 021-4924170

Preparation
For anyone intending in doing this years marathon they should have a good base mileage built up already and should have at least experienced a 10 mile run.The best way to start your preparation is to send in an entry form and then plan your training schedule from there and of course relay runners should get involved in regular training and link up with a few training partners to put a team together.

For anyone not already following a training Schedule please find the following which may be of assistance

Champion Sports Cork City Marathon 2008
Week 1 of the 12 week training plan (Intended for 10th March)

Beginners
Mon - 30 mins easy, Tue - Rest, Wed - 45 min easy, Thurs - Rest, Fri - 30 min easy, Sat - Rest, Sun - 60 min run/walk.

Improvers
Mon - 45 mins easy, Tues - 60 min easy, Wed - Rest, Thurs - 40 min include hills, Fri - Rest, Sat - warm up, 20 mins fast and then warm down, Sun - 1.5 hours easy.

Serious Runners
Mon - 45 mins easy, Tues - warm up, 12 x 1 min hard, warm down, Wed - 60 mins steady, Thurs - warm up, 6 x 3 mins hard, warm down, Fri - Rest, Sat - 45 mins easy, Sun - 1.5 hours steady.

The above plan may be varied between off road and track and rest days may include cross training or light gym work

Regards........Mick Dooley, Cork BHAA 087-9790806 , Cork City Marathon

Results of the Cork BHAA UCC 10 km Road Race - Sun 6th Apr 2008
They got a fine crowd for this race with 336 runners taking part, an increase of 41 on last years figure of 295. Conditions were very good...dry, bright and sunny with only a slight wind to worry about. If anything, we were sheltered from the worst of it for the first half and it was behind us for the 2nd half of the race. As per normal at the BHAA races, everything seemed to run very smoothly......registration, stewarding, refresments, prizegiving and so on.

The highlight of this years race was of course, the draw for the big prize, a Dell laptop. Alas, I didn't win :o( but it was nice to see that the person that did win it, was actually in the hall. It would have been a pity for someone to win it, not be there and for the ticket to be redrawn.

Results...
So on to the results. The full official results probably won't be out until Tuesday but John Walshe of Ballycotton Running Promotions has very kindly sent me on a copy which I have put up on a tempory webpage. As soon as the official results are out, I'll link to them but in the meantime, you can find the tempory results at....

http://homepage.eircom.net/~corkrunning/UCC10k_06apr08.htm

Next events...
Don't forget that next Sunday, the 13th of April is the date for the Kilnaboy 10 mile road race, the 4th and final race in the John Buckley Sports/Munster 10 mile Classic series (entry on the day). After that, we have the 4 mile race in Castlemartyr in East Cork on the 17th. The next Cork BHAA race is on the 29th of April. I'll have details of all of these races as we get closer.

Comments...
Anyone else like to comment of this race...???

"Thanks John for getting the results up so fast!! Interesting, I knocked 1min:30 off my time from last year but finished 18 places lower down. Its getting very competitive :-) .........Derek"

"I noticed that Derek. There seemed to be a lot of fast runners in the field yesterday. This year, I finished in 33rd position and was the 6th O40. Last year, the same time would have seen me in 17th position and 2nd O40. C'est la vie... ;o) ...........John Desmond"

"All that it means john is that your just getting older and there is no shame in that,33rd place, i would die if i was that quick.Regards...............To afraid to say in fair of backlash ha,ha"

"That sounds like M.T. !! ;o) Whatever about getting older, the last time I did this race was back in 2005 and I was 1m 28 seconds slower then! I know age is a factor long term but from year to year, the quantity and quality of the training has a much bigger impact.......or at least I hope it does!! We'll see in the Marathon ;o)........John Desmond"

"Oh get out of here i was only 6 place's behind you at the four mile mark, when i saw you jump on the back of a moped and you got off again at the 5 mile mark thats the reason you were quicker yesterday than in 2005 your not kidding anyone.Does anyone know who was driving that moped he should be banned from road race's for life,the BHAA should go through the cctv footage to establish the moped driver and ban him from aiding john desmond getting quicker times,maybe it was john walshe who was driving,god come to think about it those results were on the web very quick after the race??? .........Anonymous"

"Are you mad? Do you think if I got on a moped at 4 miles, I'd actually get off and start running again?!?!? Sod that, I'd stay on it ;o) .........and now I'm wondering, who was 6 places behind me at the 4 mile mark??? I'll have to get rear view mirrors.............John Desmond"

Preview of the Cork BHAA 'UCC' 10 km road race - Sun 6th of April (11am)

After a lull of nearly 2 months, the Cork Business Houses Athletic Association races are starting again in earnest. The next race in their busy calendar is the UCC 10 km race next Sunday. This race takes in the Lee Road and Straight Road and must be one of the oldest races on the local scene...I can even remember doing this race back in 1988!! Indeed, someone has just reminded me that this race started way back in 1983 and the race this year is the 25th anniversary.

Registration...

This year due to some building work, they are unable to use the Lee Maltings for registration, changing and showers. So to register, you need to go to the old red brick pavillion in the Mardkye sports grounds. Please note that it is very expensive to park inside the Sports grounds. Note that the refreshments and prizegiving is in a seperate building about 1 km away. It might be an idea to park somewhere halfway between the two.

For a better idea of where the old pavillion is, use this link...http://pininthemap.com/d33af461acd75dd12

Course...

After you register, just follow the other runners accross the 'Shaky Bridge' to get to the start.

The first 200 metres or so is all downhill but soon you are on to the Lee road and it's pretty flat. Around the 2.5 mile mark, there is a good uphill section followed by a steep downhill bit around 3 miles. After that, it's more or less dead flat. You re-join the main road, go past The Anglers Rest pub and then join the Carrigrohane straight.

This last section is about 2 miles long and dead straight. Some people hate it as you can see the County Hall way off in the distance and it feels like it isn't getting any closer. To be honest, I can't see what difference it makes...you are at the 4 mile mark in a 10 km race and that's it.

(By the way, if you are thinking about doing the Marathon in June, the 4 mile mark here is about the 22 mile mark in the Marathon. You will have to run from here, in the Straight Road, Western Road and finish in Patrick's Street. Anyway...back to the UUC race...)

The finish of the 10 km race is just beyond the County Hall. Keep it in mind as you run in the Straight Road....once you pass that building, you're almost there. The finish is just outside the Kingsley Hotel.

Please note that when you finish, you will be given a ticket for a draw....hang onto it!

Water...

Please note that there are no water stations out along the course. Once you finish, they will have bottled water available.

Apres Race...

After the race, the refreshments and the prizegiving will be in the restaurant in the Lee Maltings. See map up top.

To see exactly where the Lee Maltings is, click on this link...http://pininthemap.com/67404b694e24f13bb

Now for the interesting part!! The following message was issued by the Cork BHAA...
" NEWSFLASH: A Laptop kindly sponsored by Dell Computers will be raffled amongst all race finishers. ALL FINISHERS will receive a ticket at the end of the race and the raffle will take place about 12.30pm in the Lee Maltings at the Prizegiving. THE WINNER MUST BE PRESENT to collect the prize in person (otherwise the ticket will be re-drawn!).....Cork BHAA "

If you would like to have a closer look at the course, I have put it up on the MapMyRun website. Click on the link below...

Plassey 10 km Race Results - Sat 29th March 2008
I can see that there are a few visitors coming to this website looking for the results of the Plassey 10 km race in Limerick.

There is a limited set of results HERE.

By the way, I heard that that there were loads of PB's in this race (course was only 9.4 kms long!!)
No Jones Counter there ;o)

Connemarathon 2008......6th April
Good luck to everyone travelling up to Galway this weekend for this event. For anyone who is not aware of it, it is basically 3 races rolled into one.
First off are the runners doing the Ultra-Marathon, a distance of 39.3 miles!! They start off first and have to run 13.1 miles before they join up with those who are starting the Marathon (26.2 miles).
13.1 miles later, they join up with the several thousand runners who will be doing the Half Marathon. All said and done, a huge event.

Videos...
Here are 5 video clips about the Connemara event. These are really good and well worth looking at. Total viewing time is about 25 minutes.

Please Note...You will need a fast Internet connection like Broadband to watch these.

1st video. Time = 3m 44s. 2005 event. This clip shows the start of the Ultra-Marathon. What an amazing achievement....39 miles....one and a half Marathons.



2nd video. Time = 5m 14s. 2005 event. This shows the start of the normal Marathon, only 26.2 miles!



3rd video. Time = 6m 50s. 2005 event. This clip shows the Half-Marathon and the finish for all of the entrants for all 3 races.



4th video. Time = 3m 03s. 2005 event. This shows the awards ceremory after the race.



5th video. Time = 6m 03s. This clip is a report on the 2007 event. Very well made.

Results of the number of Marathons poll...

This was another poll that finished a few weeks ago. The poll question was "How many full Marathons (26.2 miles) have you done?". The poll got 82 votes and thanks to everyone who took the time to select an option.

The results were...

None, no interest in doing one = 13% , None but planning to do one = 17% , 1 = 28% , 2 to 3 = 19% , 4 to 5 = 9% , 6 to 9 = 4% , 10+ = 7%

So, lets have a closer look. First of all, 7% have done 10+ Marathons!! I think that's pretty amazing. Most runners aspire to complete one Marathon but 10!! Well done to whoever you are.

As for the rest of the results, as you would expect, the higher the number of Marathons, the lower the number of people who have completed them. Here are some points...

a) 39% of all runners completed more than one Marathon. So, after all of the effort in completing their first Marathon, they came back and did a 2nd one. I'm a bit suprised that it is as high as 39%. I would have thought that once most people had done one, it might be a case of 'been there, done that ' i.e. The Marathon was their challenge and goal and they had achieved it. I guess that for a lot of people, once they have one under their belt, they might want to do the 2nd one faster? Or perhaps, once they know they can do one, they elect to do one overseas like London / Berlin / New York, etc?

b) An encouraging 17% are planning to do their 1st Marathon. This to me would suggest that a lot of people still think of the Marathon as the ultimate distance. I wonder how many of that 17% are runners who completed the Relay last year and are thinking about doing a full Marathon this year? Whatever the reason, the fact that one in six runners are thinking of doing their first Marathon means that these type of races have a bright future.

c) And 13% have no interest in doing one....we'll have to work on them ;o)

Agree or Disagree? Comments...

Results of the Dungarvan 10 Poll...

This poll finished 3 weeks ago and I never got around to commenting on it. For the Dungarvan 10 road race at the start of February, the pre-entry fee was €15 and the entry fee on the day of the race was €20. At the race, they gave out a goody bag, a t-shirt and a glass momento. The poll question was selected by West Waterford AC as they wanted some feedback from runners who had done the race. The question they asked was "Do you think the entry fee was worth it?". The poll got 84 votes and 82% said that they thought it was worth it while 18% said it was'nt.

So, the result is pretty clear in that the majority of people thought that the entry fee was ok. My own opinion is that I think it shows that most people see the 10 mile races as something special and not like the other shorter races. I think they are prepared to pay that bit extra for what they feel is a special occasion.

Comments...???

"Hi John. I don't think people mind the entry fee so much when they only enter races once in a blue moon, but I would be curious as to how the lads and women who enter races regularly feel about it? Any comments from the regular runners would be interesting. I hope to do all the races in April and have entered the Half Marathon in Glengariff in May. That comes to a fair few quid considering entry fee's, petrol cost's, etc etc. But for me, it's all about the enjoyment of the events rather than the fee's....kind regard's....John Dunphy, Rising Sun AC "

Even more Ballycotton 10 photos....

I came accross these on a website yesterday. There are plenty there and you can order prints from it if you so wish.

The link is...http://www.irishrunner.ie/BC10/BC10.htm

I have the links to all of the Ballycotton photos on the post for the results of the Ballycotton 10 race.

Last reminder for cheapest Cork Marathon & Relay entries...

Next Monday, the 31st of March is the closing date for the cheapest entries for the Cork City Marathon and relay. If you want to avail of this, you would really need to get those entries in the post today (...I posted mine yesterday just to be sure!! ;o)

Just go to the Cork City Marathon Website and follow the links there for an entry form. You can also enter online although this costs 10% extra.

For a bit more info, look down this page at the post dated the 13th of March.

Update on the Cork Cancer Research Centre Sponsorship...

As many of you know, this was the chosen charity this year for the Ballycotton 10 race. I have just received an e-mail from Fiona in the Centre giving an update on the amount collected so far.

She wrote..."Just wanted to keep you updated on funds raised for Cork Cancer Research Centre through the Ballycotton ‘10’ and the runners that have supported us through this event. As of today, EU16,800 has been raised through the event and its runners, with more sponsorship funds expected in the coming weeks. Many thanks again to you all for your support – it truly is appreciated."

So, if you still have to return your sponsorship card (like me!!), you should return it as soon as possible to : Cork Cancer Research Centre, Development Office, Drury's Avenue, Midleton, Co.Cork.

Update on the John Buckley Sports / Munster 10 Mile Spring Classic Series....
The guys in Mallow Athletic Club have been busy compiling all of the results of the 1st 3 races in the John Buckley Sports / Munster 10 Mile Spring Classic Series (Mallow, Dungarvan & Ballycotton) and they are now ready. I have generated a webpage from this info and it is now up on another website.

It looks as if a total of 177 runners have completed the first 3 races. Last year, 94 runners completed all 4 races so hopefully, most of the 177 will make the trip to Kilnaboy and the 100 mark will be broken this year.

The positions and times of the 177 runners can be seen on this webpage... http://homepage.eircom.net/~corkrunning/2008_Classic_Series_after_3_races.htm

Don't forget....Kilnaboy 10 Mile...Sunday April 13th

(...with thanks to Jerry McCarthy of Mallow AC for compiling the results and to John Holland of Mallow AC for sending them on to me)

More Ballycotton photos.........

A new set of photos have been added to the Ballycotton Running Promotions website. Here is the LINK.